I've had HDMI wiring for my HD CRT Sony for a while now, and I'm beginning to think having a converter to drive my older (1940's-70's) standard definition sets from that system would be a good thing.

I'd like to get a unit that can accept HDMI input resolution up to and including 1080i. That puts out NTSC on composite and preferably S-VIDEO too.

When given 16:9 input I'd like to be able to choose between sides cropped and letterbox, but being stuck with either is okay as long as there's no stretching or squishing of the image.... what out there is good?

Looking forward to any successful responses, as I went through at least 3 as I recall HDMI to composite or S video output converters from Amazon sources. Wanted to use the HDMI outputs on a DVR to my Sony KV27V10. The DVR does have composite video out and that works fine but has some limited functions available from the HDMI output. Anyway the Sony TV could not make color with any of those converters composite or S. Might see a little color banding then it would go to B&W. After trying several, I gave up.

I think the request was for anyone to share any real-world, hands-on experience that they have with specific products. That would be the most helpful information, which you don't always get from browsing online.

I've had HDMI wiring for my HD CRT Sony for a while now, and I'm beginning to think having a converter to drive my older (1940's-70's) standard definition sets from that system would be a good thing.

I'd like to get a unit that can accept HDMI input resolution up to and including 1080i. That puts out NTSC on composite and preferably S-VIDEO too.

When given 16:9 input I'd like to be able to choose between sides cropped and letterbox, but being stuck with either is okay as long as there's no stretching or squishing of the image.... what out there is good?

I picked up a HDMI convertor at my favorite charity thrift. It just has the composite out and audio out jacks. Is it considered composite out with the red, green and blue jacks? Those are the only ones on this unit and my TV.
There is no name on it or where it came from.

I think the request was for anyone to share any real-world, hands-on experience that they have with specific products. That would be the most helpful information, which you don't always get from browsing online.

Exactly! Me (and Ed in TX too apparently) already own enough objects that qualify as uneconomical paperweights...I could throw money at the problem, but I rather ask the experienced technical minds (who have similar applications to mine) here on VK than try and find Amazon reviews by folks that seem to know what they are talking about or just take a stab at one of the many products that usually have at best a poor description of which of the many methods they employ and exact specs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I picked up a HDMI convertor at my favorite charity thrift. It just has the composite out and audio out jacks. Is it considered composite out with the red, green and blue jacks? Those are the only ones on this unit and my TV.
There is no name on it or where it came from.

Yellow is composite video. The RGB video jack set is component (which sounds confusingly close to composite).

Exactly! Me (and Ed in TX too apparently) already own enough objects that qualify as uneconomical paperweights...I could throw money at the problem, but I rather ask the experienced technical minds (who have similar applications to mine) here on VK than try and find Amazon reviews by folks that seem to know what they are talking about or just take a stab at one of the many products that usually have at best a poor description of which of the many methods they employ and exact specs.

Yellow is composite video. The RGB video jack set is component (which sounds confusingly close to composite).

This is the way I connected it and it seems to enhance the picture. The picture it displays on my set is not distorted in any way. The commercial showing gold coins and the coin is perfectly round on the screen.
I think this unit was included with some kind of cable converter, that didn't have anything but a HDMI out. The unit was never used and didn't include any cables or instructions or brand name. Just the small box and AC adaptor.

I have an HDMI2AV cheapie I bought on ebay. It does only composite. The aspect ratio is not adjustable, nor is zoom, etc. It must be done at the source. It works well enough, it's Definitly capable of better resolution than any of my vintage TVs.